An Industry Group Takes the Initiative

The American Electronics Association (AEA), with 2700 electronics and information technology member companies, is the largest national trade association for the electronics industries. AEA initiated a formal engineering and technical education program in 1981 which seeks to increase the quality and quantity of electrical engineering and computer science/engineering graduates in the U.S. It seeks remedies primarily by focusing on the shortage of engineering and computer science faculty which is restricting undergraduate enrollments and decreasing educational quality. AEA´s Board of Directors set a goal for each of its member companies to ``invest´´ 2 percent of R&D expenditures in engineering education. It recommends that much of industry´s assistance be in the form of faculty development grants, graduate student fellowship-loans, and equipment in the electrical and computer engineering and computer science areas.